A traditional method of making quilts is to make pieced blocks using a variety of fabrics and patterns. The blocks are then joined into rows by stitching a complementary piece of fabric between two blocks, called sashing. Similarly rows are joined together using more sashing fabric, creating a lattice effect. The intersection of the sashing pieces is called the sashing square or cornerstone. Once the main body of the quilt is completed, one or more borders are frequently added to frame the work.
The size of the borders will vary. If the quilt is square, all four borders will be the same size. If the quilt is rectangular, they will differ. When quilting a border area, it is important that the chosen quilting design symmetrically fill the space and be identical in each corner area. Finding quilting designs that work when the length-side and width-side are different and that flow around the corners consistently is difficult and requires many adjustments.
The size of the sashing strips will also vary depending on the size of the pieced blocks, the desired size of the finished quilt top, or even the amount of the fabric that is available. As with border areas for an entire craft-work (e.g., a bedspread), when quilting a sashing area it is important that the chosen quilting design symmetrically fill the space and be identical in each cornerstone area.
It is highly desirable to have a template system for choosing the right size design that will be repeated along unequal border destances and still go around the corners perfectly.
When the quilting is done by hand or using a regular sewing machine, the quilts are usually marked with lines for the quilting design and then stitched along the marked lines. The design may need to be adjusted to fit the area during the marking process. When using a long-arm quilting machine, following the marking lines is very difficult. Thus, it is desirable to have a template that makes final quilting with the long-arm quilting machine easier, more accurate and faster.
Most long-arm machines include a circular guard called a hopping foot surrounding the stitching needle. On most long-arm machines the hopping foot is dimensioned such that there is either ¼ inch or ⅜ inch from the needle to the outer edge of the hopping foot. When the machine is guided along any template, the hopping foot touches the template and the stitch line is a ¼ inch or ⅜ inch away from the template. This offset needs to be considered when using the templates to mark a quilt. Thus it is desirable to have a template that makes the final quilting with the long-arm quilting machine easier, and which can still be used for marking the quilt in advance.
While a variety of template devices have been developed, it would be highly desirable to have templates that can be stored in an organized fashion and in a minimum amount of space. This would facilitate choosing and using appropriate templates to facilitate accurate quilting operations.